Here's an interesting article on sharrows.
http://www.svbcbikes.org/crank/nov-dec-04/sharrows.php
The author concludes that,
"for the time being the symbols can charitably be described as possibly better than nothing – provided that "nothing" is indeed the only other alternative."

I have been happy with these markings. But then I don't normally travel on roads which incorporate sharrows. It's interesting that the city which "stands as a national leader in innovative transportation solutions. (http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/)" Is still struggling to find a means by which we citizens can feel safe from traffic. While I praise sharrows for the innovation which they display, I can't help but think how easy it should be for us (us including the bike community, PDOT, BTA) to develop an inexpensive means of providing a safe transportation corridor for bicycles and pedestrians. The difficulty is to develop a solution which can be built using only 1.5% of PDOT's budget (http://www.commissionersam.com/node/1174). I've often brought up the idea of some type of physical seperator to distinguish the bike lane from the travel lane (so drivers who drift too far are alerted. Every cyclist to whom I mention this, claims that bumps or curbs would be more dangerous for cyclists. Another option which was brought up by the folks at Streets Renaisance (http://www.nycsr.org/) was for switching the bike lane and the car lane (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONS2ptAR4mo). This would put the parked cars between the bicycle traffic and the car traffic. This to me is the most effective option. However I'm open, and I would like to hear your opinions and options.
So what do you folks think?